The winner of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai was Spaniard Alvaro Quiroz.
Alvaro Quiroz hit a home run in the fourth round to win the tournament in Dubai which attracted all the world’s top golfers. The Spaniard was one stroke ahead of Denmark’s Anders Hansen and South Africa’s James Kingston in the final scorecard.
Before the final day of competition, Quiroz shared a provisional fourth place with six other golfers, including Tiger Woods, with a -7. Quiros began his final round with a tee shot on the second hole and two birdies on the third and fifth, but grabbed a triple bogey on the seventh as his ball got stuck in a tree. Could victory be forgotten? No, it wasn’t! The decisive moment for the Spaniard came on the 161-yard 11th hole, which is where he registered the ice – he overcame the par-3 hole with a single stroke. “It was a perfect shot,” the golfer said at the end of the event. – It happens once a year.”
But even after his hole-in-one, Quiros was still losing to Hansen, who entered the final round as one of the leaders. The Spaniard birdied the 16th hole and par-bogeyed the rest two holes to pull ahead of the Norwegian who was struggling to recover from an upset bogey on the 15th hole. To add, both Kingston and Hansen had a chance to advance to the playoffs, but the former missed from 30 feet and the latter erred from 40.
Quiros, 28, won his fifth European Tour title and first of the 2011 season. What’s more, with this victory, the 28-year-old Spaniard topped the Race to Dubai, the official European Tour standings. He moved up in the world rankings from 37th to 21st, the highest ranking of his career.
“I’m very proud of myself,” the 28-year-old golfer said. – I think I was able to handle difficult situations well. I have to admit that the ice on the 11th hole was probably the most exciting moment of my career. It’s like the last piece of birthday cake. It gave me a chance to win the tournament.”
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who had led for the first three days of the tournament, made five bogeys on Sunday with three birdies, posted a +2 and ended up just tenth.
Tiger Woods was just two strokes behind the leader with seven holes to go, but he sent his ball into the lake on the 18th, got a double bogey and ended up being one of those to share 20th place. The great American hasn’t known a tournament win in 15 months.
World ranking leader Lee Westwood could also have hoped for a high score, but after conceding a pair of three strokes on the last two holes (his ball got stuck in a tree on the 17th just like Quiros and went into the lake on the 18th just like Woods), the Englishman slipped to 15th place.
Martin Kaymer performed even worse. The 26-year-old German, who had a chance to top the world rankings if he had placed first or second in Dubai, ended up finishing only 31st.
